What is a Self-Managed HOA?
Before discussing the challenges and procedures of a self-managed HOA, we must first define what a self-managed HOA is. A self-managed HOA is an association made up of a board of directors elected by homeowners. This means that a professional management company is not involved in any capacity. These HOA members are not paid and instead work as volunteers who want to better and improve their community.
What Challenges Do Self-Managed HOAs Face?
Of course, while professional management companies can have their own set of drawbacks, they also help in many ways. This means that self-managed HOAs are left with some challenges when they don’t use professional management companies:
- Increased workload: Self-managed boards do not have the same access to technology and resources as professional companies. This means that it may take twice as long for an HOA board member to complete a task as it would a professional.
- Less experience: Professionals often need a license to work for an HOA management company. Meanwhile, self-managed board members are volunteers who may not have as much time to learn more about the industry and may easily become frustrated or overwhelmed if the process is too complicated.
- Reduced Trust: Buyers are already wary of communities with HOAs, so HOAs need to make the best impression possible. If a self-managed HOA comes across as disorganized or mismanaged, it will quickly lose a buyer’s interest. Self-managed HOAs must work harder to earn a buyer’s trust.
How Can Enumerate Central Help?
Enumerate Central software helps you streamline community management from top to bottom. It enables you to handle everything from accounting to communication to give more focus to your residents’ needs. These are some ways self managed HOA software, like Enumerate Central can benefit your self-managed community.
Accounting
With a board made up of community members, it’s unlikely that you have a professional accountant in your group. With Enumerate Central, that’s not a problem. We provide you with a full-service accounting firm of HOA accounting experts with over 20 years of accounting experience. They can help you with financial management, budget preparation, financial consulting, and collections. They’ll even provide you with easy-to-access phone support to answer any of your accounting questions as they come up.
Processing Payments
Processing payments is a headache for many HOA communities. The more residents you have, the harder it becomes. Luckily, Enumerate Central makes it easier by providing online HOA account payments. Our TOPS Pay system comes with an Owner Access Portal where residents can set up recurring ACH direct debit payments that prevent them from falling behind on their HOA payments. They can also pay via credit card and e-check if they prefer.
TOPS Pay also makes the payment process easier for board members by providing visibility into the payment flow. You can view month-over-month payment trends, and how many of your residents are paying online. Even better, you save time that you would typically waste processing checks manually.
Communications
Communication within your community doesn’t have to be challenging. Enumerate Central provides several ways to simplify the process via email, phone, and even a community website. Enumerate Central can help you create a community website where homeowners can communicate, you can easily get announcements and alerts out to homeowners, and homeowners can fill out forms. Meanwhile, Enumerate enhances your email communications with tracking, so you can view if emails are delivered, bounced, or opened, and see a dashboard view for your email campaigns. If you prefer to communicate via text message, Enumerate allows you to send one-off and community-wide text messages to homeowners. Furthermore, with Enumerate, you can also send voice broadcast messages via phone call.
Watch a Demo of Enumerate Central Today
If you are looking into switching your community to a self-managed HOA, consider Enumerate Central to help you make the transition. Check out a demo of our software features and see what we can do together.
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